The Beat Surrender

Mystery Jets are a band that continue to confuse me, leaving me awe inspired, baffled and bored in equal parts.

This started with their debut album Making Dens, I’d heard a couple of singles prior to the album (including the brilliant On My Feet. Which wasn’t included sadly) and I’d liked what I heard. The album certainly had it’s moments and none more so than the fantastic quirk-pop of Can’t Fool Me Dennis, still despite these moments it flattered to deceive for me.

Live again they were a bit of a strange experience. I saw them two or three times around the first album and it was the same every time for me. Once you got over the novelty of the coolest Dad in rock being onstage with them and the set up of the drums being towards the front, the actual show and the music was a little bit limited and I lost interest within three or four songs.

Here we are now though with the bands second album, produced in the main by Erol Alkan (Stephen Street gets in on the act with one song) the pairing of the band with this producer should have at least provide an interesting edge to Twenty One.

I suppose it does in some respects, it’s just again for me they have failed to deliver a killer album, instead we get some brilliant tracks again, with what feels like some real filler in between. The single Young Love suggested to me they may nail it this time, Laura Marling is brilliant on this single but then Wills vocals are equally as good, it’s one of the singles of the year for me and set my expectations too high.

Hideaway is promising enough with it’s air-raid siren opening and electro-beat, Veiled In Grey is good as well, a jaunty strum-along that goes for and pulls off an epic finish. Likewise Umbrellahead has a very distinctive intro that sets the tone for one of the best tracks on the album, it continues with a racy, galloping feel to the song.

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